Minneapolis leaders say fewer people are experiencing homelessness in the city compared to last year
Minneapolis leaders say the city is making significant progress on reducing homelessness.
Mayor Jacob Frey says police have gotten rid of all encampments larger than a few people.
"Officers are now preventing a number of these encampments from forming from the get-go," he said
Critics of the Minneapolis Police Department's policing strategies say getting rid of the camps only hides homelessness without solving it.
The city claims numbers that say otherwise.
"Last year, we had somewhere between 250 and 300 people that were experiencing unsheltered homelessness," Frey said. "Now we have between 30 and 50."
Frey says working with both nonprofits and Hennepin County, plus the city's own five-day-a-week outreach team, is leading to more people moving to shelters and utilizing resources.
"[When you] separate that one individual from the encampment and go have a cup of coffee with them, go sit down somewhere else, those defenses start to come down," said Enrique Velazquez, the city's director of regulatory services. "They then realize this isn't the life for me."
The city says crime is down in neighborhoods around former encampments and calls to 911 and 311 are also down.
"That is a breath of relief for the surrounding communities," Frey said. "The fact that people previously experiencing homelessness are now inside can be a breath of relief for them, and this is just a good thing.
Velazquez says dozens of shelter beds remain available.